Rolling Laptop Bags: What’s Great, and What’s Junk

We spent a few weeks evaluating the best rolling laptop bags from the most reliable manufacturers of luggage and tech gear. The wheeled cases that we’ve chosen are excellent for short trips as well as for daily use. People who carry heavier laptops and electronics will love them, as will those who just want to give their bodies a break and glide quickly to their destinations.

We have several different recommendations, depending on a user’s style and purpose. This is a long article but we’ve summarized our top recommendations just below. And separately, we have a review covering rolling laptop-purse combos for women.

The Best Rolling Laptop Bags

Our favorite rolling laptop bags overall are from Kensington. They are well-made from durable materials, are properly designed and padded to protect electronics, and have ample features and organizational pockets to provide a rolling office-on-the-go. Kensington backs these bags up with long warranties, which shows significant confidence in their build quality.

Our favorite overall: The Kensington Contour Roller (pictured right). It’s a smart-looking piece with a comfortable shoulder strap that can be removed when not in use, and a five-level telescoping handle that makes it quite comfortable to pull, whatever your height. There are two main compartments, a side water-bottle pocket, and other cleverly built organizer pockets for your gear.

The best rolling laptop backpack: The Jansport Driver 8 Backpack is our favorite to pop up on both shoulders for rough terrain and bad weather. Jansport is well-known bags that are built to last for many years and come with a lifetime warranty. This bag’s handle locks in at two levels. It is simpler than the Kensington options, but features a water-bottle pocket and two front organizer pockets. The straps can be tucked away when not in use, and there are thoughtful flaps over the zippers to better protect your valuables from rain or snow. See below for more on the Jansport Driver 8. Note that the Driver 8 only fits laptops of up to 15″, however. If you have a 17″ laptop, opt instead for the similarly durable and well-designed Samsonite Wheeled Computer Backpack, also described below. The Samsonite is also our top pick for a cheaper bag that is still of high quality.

As heavy travellers, we’ve been advocating the convenience of combo rolling travel backpacks as well as backpack carry-ons for years, and this has led us to some pretty strong opinions about luggage brands. But to better get an idea of laptop-specific bags, we reviewed the topadvicefrom all of the major reviewers of laptop cases — which unfortunately doesn’t cover rolling options, but at least informs about the reliable brands. We then set out to see what are the best options for the laptop bags that roll.

Generally people who use rolling laptop bags are carrying around more than just a thin laptop; often they are used for carrying the larger and heavier gaming PCs, portable second screens, backup batteries, and other accessories. Our first priority was therefore to select rolling bags was that would lovingly coddle and protect these valued electronics for years, and the second was to ensure that they provide a smart way of organizing one’s mobile office. Finally, we wanted them to be comfortable to both roll and carry for a variety of people.

Our top picks: Kensington Rolling Laptop Bags

We reviewed many dozens of laptop case reviews written over the last decade in Europe and the Americas, and the one name that seemed to most consistently generate sincere praise was Kensington. Bloggersandtechpresscommentingon their Kensington laptop cases found them to built to last due to their tough materials, quality zippers and wheels, and careful workmanship. One Italian YouTuber even reviewed his Kensington after using it for nearly two years; the bag was still indistinguishable from those that were brand new.1Yes, Italian is one of the many languages we use and enjoy here at SelectoGuru.

Wheels Plus Strap: The Kensington Contour Roller

We think that the best wheeled laptop choice for most is the Kensington Contour Roller, which has a detachable shoulder strap that is great for when you hit a flight of stairs, uneven terrain, or otherwise need to carry the bag for a moment.

Other features of note:

A five-stage handle allows a fine degree of adjustment to exactly the user’s height — so it’s much more finely tuned than any other rolling bag we’ve found.

There is a main padded compartment that can securely hold up to 17″ laptops and screens; a secondary main compartment with a divider; a front on-the-go organizer panel with pockets for a phone, pens, and other quick-access items; and a back accessory compartment that is especially useful for protecting cables. There is an external pocket for a water bottle or umbrella.

A velcro strap can attach the bag to the top of a suitcase.

The “contour”, or just slightly rounded shape, allows the bag to adjust to your body and better center the weight when carried.

The bag is made of tough ballistic nylon — before kevlar came along, this was what protected soldiers from shrapnel.

The one downside we find with the bag is that the rolling handle pops out of the back-most accessory compartment through a flap, which then leaves any items in that back compartment partially exposed (though they are in their own pouches). While this won’t be a problem for most, if you’re going to be rolling the bag while in a lot of rough weather you should go for one of the other Kensington options just below, or else the Jansport Driver 8 backpack farther down, which is particularly weather-resistant.

There is also a slightly taller version, the Kensington Contour Overnight Roller, that measures 15.5 x 20.7 x 6.4 inches (39.4 x 52.6 x 16.3 cm) — still small enough to serve as a carry-on on most airlines. It’s a bit like a standard carry-on suitcase but techier, with more organizational pockets that can be used to work of like a mobile office. It is available from Amazon and Staples.

While it may come in a sleek, unassuming package, the Kensington SecureTrek Laptop Roller is a mini moveable fortress for your laptop and gear. The zippers for the two main compartments are puncture-resistant and the heads lock into a base that can be secured with any small padlock. While no such system is impenetrable, it does deter casual thieves by making sure that a fair amount of fuss, noise, and tools are necessary to get into the bag.

The exterior is a hardened 840D poly twill and tough enough to protect against drops and bumps.

The front panel opens up to serve as a mini-workstation, with organizer pockets for a phone, business card, pens, etc.

The main compartment has padded storage for a 17″ laptop and 10″ tablet, as well as additional slots and storage for a change or two of clothing (with a compression strap), cables, papers, books and more.

Need Both Backpack Straps and Wheels for Your Laptop?

Most people, once they have wheels, tend to use them much more than dual shoulder straps — at most they use a single shoulder strap as with our top pick above. But if you anticipate a lot of rough terrain, rain, and/or biking, or if you just prefer a backpacky look and feel, there are two excellent options.

The Best Rolling Backpack for 15″ Laptops: The Jansport Driver 8

We think that the best and most durable wheeled laptop backpack you can buy is the Jansport Driver 8.

Why Jansport? It’s the top-selling American backpack brand and well-known for standing by its lifetime warranty. Reviewersandconsumer organizationshave analyzed and stress-tested the company’s bags and given them top marks for durability. This includes tests of ripping, rough handling, and water resistance in which Jansport bags made of the same materials have performed fabulously. The Driver 8 is similarly built and its good real ranking from Amazon reviewers suggests that it tends to hold up well over time and impress. It is made of 600 Denier polyester with a 420 Denier nylon base, which are excellent, rugged materials.

The potential downside of this bag is that it’s a bit simpler than our main Kensington recommendations above; there aren’t as many organizational pockets and its look is a bit more schooly (it’s a backpack after all) and less techy.

The Best Rolling Backpack for 17″ Laptops (and a Great Overall Cheap Option): The Samsonite Tectonic Wheeled Computer Backpack

As with the brands recommended above, Samsonite tends to do quite well when consumerorganizations run durability tests and surveys on its products. The bag is also made of 400D ripstop nylon but yet is much cheaper than our main picks. The warranty is shorter than that of our other picks, but still generous at three years.

The features:

Main compartment with removable padded laptop sleeve for 17″ laptop

Tuck-away padded straps

Padded back panel

Front and side organizational pockets

Headphone cable port

Side water bottle pocket

The downside: We don’t expect this bag to be quite as durable as our main picks above, in spite of the brand’s generally excellent ratings from consumer organizations and this bag’s overall good feedback from customers.

The Samsonite Wheeled Computer Backpack measures 21 x 14 x 8 inches (53.3 x 35.6 x 20.3 cm), has a 38.5L capacity, and is available directly from Samsonite, which often offers good popup discounts when you click through that link. You can also see other smaller versions from Samsonite here. And currently, there are many color options from Amazonbut be careful to check the listed size as some of those different colors are also different sizes. You can also get it on Ebags.

The Other Rolling Laptop Bags

There were 50-some laptop bags that we considered weren’t our top choices in terms of the combination of durability, quality, price, features, and guarantee, although a few of them do have some interesting features.

What is SelectoGuru.com?

We recommend the best stuff, particularly stuff for minimalist travel. In addition to testing out gear ourselves, we analyse the results reported from all major American and European consumer organisations and read copious press and tech site reviews. We also bring our own heavy dose of realism concerning how these products are actually used.

Who are you?

Nice folks, based out of frequently changing European cities. We released our first article in November 2014 and have continued to write obsessively ever since about whatever it strikes our fancy to research.

How do you know what’s best?

In addition to trying out the products, we review every scrap of information available on them, in many languages, before we make a recommendation. Our meta-analysis includes links to the sources we have found most useful, so you can verify them for yourself.

What do you mean by ‘best’?

The most useful, reliable stuff at the best price. We (usually) don't agree with tech sites' fawning over the most decked-out, crazy cool gadgets; we look for what works best for most people's real-life needs.

Why should I trust you?

We never accept payment from product manufacturers; our revenue is from affiliate networks, especially Amazon. This means we have no motivation to recommend one particular product over another (as long as they're available online, and pretty much everything is). Our goal is to recommend products that will serve you well, so that you'll come back to us as we expand this site to cover more products.

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If you like what we're doing, just use our links on the day that you're ready to buy. Your prices will be the same and we'll hopefully get a small cut from Amazon or whomever. If you hate us, skip our links; we'll get nothing and have a sad.